Unit 3 Studying

Question 1

Just noticeable difference (jnd)

Answer 1

The sensation that results if a change in stimulus intensity exceeds the differential threshold

Question 2

Absolute threshold

Answer 2

The smallest amount of stimulation that can be detected by an organism

Question 3

Differential threshold

Answer 3

The amount that stimulation needs to change before a difference in that stimulation can be detected

Question 4

Perception

Answer 4

According to Helmholtz, the mental experience arising when sensations are embellished by the recollection of past experiences

Question 5

Bell-Magendie Law

Answer 5

There are two types of nerves: sensory nerves carrying impulses from the sense receptors to the brain and motor nerves carrying impulses from the brain to the muscles and glands of the body

Question 6

Phrenology

Answer 6

The examination of the bumps and depressions on the skull in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of various mental faculties

Question 7

Clinical method

Answer 7

The technique that Broca used. It involves first determining a behavior disorder in a living patient and then, after the patient had died, locating the part of the brain responsible for the behavior disorder

Question 8

Unconscious inference

Answer 8

According to Helmholtz, the process by which the remnants of past experience are added to sensations, thereby converting them into perceptions

Question 9

Young-Helmholtz theory of colour vision

Answer 9

Separate receptor systems on the retina are responsive to each of the three primary colors: red, green, and blue–violet. Also called the trichromatic theory

Question 10

Method of adjustment

Answer 10

An observer adjusts a variable stimulus until it appears to be equal to a standard stimulus

Question 11

Method of constant stimuli

Answer 11

A stimulus is presented at different intensities along with a standard stimulus, and the observer reports if it appears to be greater than, less than, or equal to the standard

Question 12

Method of limits

Answer 12

A stimulus is presented at varying intensities along with a standard (constant) stimulus to determine the range of intensities judged to be the same as the standard

Question 13

Phrenology

Answer 13

The examination of the bumps and depressions on the skull in order to determine the strengths and weaknesses of various mental faculties

Question 14

Wernicke’s area

Answer 14

Discovered on the left temporal lobe of the cortex near the Broca’s area, it’s responsible for speech comprehension.

Question 15

Vitalism

Answer 15

Living organisms possess a unique life force or vital force that distinguishes them from non-living matter. It suggests that this force is responsible for the characteristic properties of life and cannot be fully explained by physical and chemical principles alone.

Question 16

Weber’s law

Answer 16

Just noticeable differences correspond to a constant proportion of a standard stimulus

Question 17

Psychophysics

Answer 17

The systematic study of the relationship between physical and psychological events.

Question 18

Physiognomy

Answer 18

The attempt to determine a person’s character by analyzing his or her facial features, bodily structure, and habitual patterns of posture and movement

Question 19

Panpsychism

Answer 19

The belief that everything in the universe experiences consciousness

Question 20

Kinesthesis

Answer 20

The sensations caused by muscular activity

Question 21

Broca’s area

Answer 21

The speech area on the left frontal lobe side of the cortex (the inferior frontal gyros)

Question 22

Will

Answer 22

According to Wundt, that aspect of humans that allows them to direct their attention anywhere they wish.

Question 23

Voluntarism

Answer 23

The name given to Wundt’s school of psychology because of his belief that, through the process of apperception, individuals could direct their attention toward whatever they wished

Question 24

Structuralism

Answer 24

The school of psychology founded by Titchener, the goal of which was to describe the structure of the mind

Question 25

Elements of thought

Answer 25

According to Wundt and Titchener, the basic sensations from which more complex thoughts are derived

Question 26

Act psychology

Answer 26

The name given to Brentano’s brand of psychology because it focused on mental operations or functions. Dealt with the interaction between mental processes and physical events

Question 27

Mental set

Answer 27

A problem-solving strategy that can be induced by instructions or by experience and that is used without a person’s awareness

Question 28

Principle of the heterogony of ends

Answer 28

According to Wundt, the fact that goal-directed activity often causes experiences that modify the original motivational pattern

Question 29

Principle toward the development of opposites

Answer 29

According to Wundt, the tendency for prolonged experience of one type to create a mental desire for the opposite type of experience

Question 30

Stimulus error

Answer 30

Letting past experience influence an introspective report

Question 31

Tri-dimensional theory of feeling

Answer 31

Wundt’s contention that feelings vary along three dimensions: pleasantness-unpleasantness, excitement-calm, and strain-relaxation

Question 32

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 32

A modern extension of Darwin’s theory to the explanation of human and non-human social behavior (also called sociobiology)

Question 33

Spencer-Bain principle

Answer 33

The observation first made by Bain and later by Spencer that behavior resulting in pleasurable consequences tends to be repeated and behavior resulting in painful consequences tends not to be

Question 34

Social Darwinism

Answer 34

Spencer’s contention that, if given freedom to compete in society, the ablest individuals will succeed and the weaker ones will fail, and this is as it should be

Question 35

Survival of the fittest

Answer 35

The notion that, in a struggle for limited resources, those organisms with traits conducive to survival under the circumstances will live and reproduce

Question 36

Evolutionary associationism

Answer 36

Spencer's synthesis of the principle of contiguity and evolutionary theory, would later become the Spencer-Bain principle

Question 37

Coefficient of correlation (r)

Answer 37

A mathematical expression indicating the magnitude of correlation between two variables

Question 38

Binet-Simon scale of intelligence

Answer 38

The scale Binet and Simon devised to directly measure the various cognitive abilities they believed intelligence comprised. The scale first appeared in 1905 and was revised in 1908 and in 1911

Question 39

Adaptive features

Answer 39

Those features that an organism possesses that allow it to survive and reproduce

Question 40

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Answer 40

Lamarck’s contention that adaptive abilities developed during an organism’s lifetime are passed on to the organism’s offspring

Question 41

Natural selection

Answer 41

A key concept in Darwin’s theory of evolution. Because more members of a species are born than environmental resources can support, nature selects those with characteristics most conducive to survival under the circumstances, which allows them to reproduce

Question 42

Eugenics

Answer 42

The use of selective breeding to increase the general intelligence of the population

Question 43

Factor analysis

Answer 43

A complex statistical technique that involves analyzing correlations among measurements and attempting to explain the observed correlations by postulating various influences

Question 44

Fitness

Answer 44

According to Darwin, an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce

Question 45

Regression toward the mean

Answer 45

The tendency for extremes to become less extreme in one’s offspring. For example, the offspring of extremely tall parents tend not to be as tall as the parents